Garment hanger



July 8, 1958 J. J. PODELL yGARA/mn HANGER Filed April 22. 1955 ATTQRNEY f isti@ The present invention relates to hangers for garments and other articles and more particularly to a garment hanger of the type adapted to grip one or more garments between cooperating jaws so that the garments are tightly held and supported in a suitable hanging position.

Various garment hangers and trouser hangers have been devised. Some have been useful only for trousers and could not be used for other garments, such as skirts. Others have been used to grip trousers only at the cuffs, and still others have been useful to accommodate only one pair of trousers at a time.

Many of these hangers have been unduly complicated and not suited for production on a commercial basis, and others fail to grip and hold a garment securely, particularly after the hanger has been in =use for some time. Other hangers have not been adaptable for use with garments of varying thicknesses, thus, for example, they have not been able to accommodate both trousers with and without cuffs or one or more pairs of trousers as the occasion requires.

The present invention overcomes the above and other defects and disadvantages, and has for one of its objects the provision of a new and improved garment hanger 'of simple construction and operation.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a garment hanger which will be useful both for trousers and for other garments, such as skirts.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a hanger which will accommodate one or more garments at one time as desired.

Another object of the present invention is -to provide a trouser hanger which will accommodate trousers at the cuffs lor at the knees.

Anotherzobject-ofthe present-invention is to provide a garment hanger which will have the sameefective gripping action for garmentsvof different thicknesses, such as winter'andsummer-weight garments.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a garmenthanger which will gripa'garment uniformly with normal use and whose -grip will vnotichange with use.

A furtherobject vof Athe present invention is to provide a garment hanger which maybe easily operated to open and close its gripping portions.

A still further object of vthe present invention is to vprovide a garment: hanger vwhich has a uniform grip `across the full width of its gripping members.

Other and further objects Vof the invention will be obvious upon an understanding of the illustrative `embodiment about to be described, or will be indicated in the appended claims, and various advantages not revterred to `herein will occur to one skilled in the art upon employment of theinvention in practice.

A preferred Vembodimentof the invention has been chosen for purposes of illustration and .description and is shown in the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the specification, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a front lelevational view, partly in section,

yshowing one form of vthe lpresent invention;

" tent O Fig. 2 is a sectional View taken on line 2-2 of Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken on line 3 3 of Fig.V l, showing the jaws in their closed article-gripping position;

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3, showing the jaws in their open position;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged sectional view taken on line 5-5 of Fig. l;

Fig. 6 is an end view of the jaws, showing a pair of trousers being gripped at the knees thereof; and

Fig. 7 is an end view of the jaws, showing a plurality of trousers being gripped at the cults thereof.

Referring more particularly to Fig. 1 of the drawing, the hanger shown comprises a coat-hanging portion 2 having a supporting hook 4 and carrying at its underside a trouser-hanging apparatus denoted generally by the numeral S. The coat-hanging portion 2 may be made of any suitable material, such as wood, plastic, or metal. It will be understood that the present invention is not limited to a garment hanger having the coat-hanging portion 2 and that this coat-hanging portion 2 may be ,eliminated and a hook, such as hook 4, used to support the trouser-hanging apparatus 5 without detracting from the eiiectiveness of the present invention.

The trouser-hanging apparatus S comprises a bracket 6 mounted at its opposite ends to the underside .of the coat hanger 2 by means of the pins 8. The pins 8 are mounted in the enlargements 3 at each end of thehanger 2 through the reduced portions `9 and vhave their outer threaded ends 11 entering openings 10 in the lflanges 12 at each end of the bracket 6. The'nuts 14 are threaded on the threaded ends 11 of the pins 8 to secure the bracket 6 in position.

Preferably, the openings i@ in the bracket 6 are large enough to permit the coat-'hanging portion y2 to swing on the pins 8 so that the coat-hanging portion 2 may be moved out of the way when the knob 24 is to be manipulated. However, the opening 10 in anges 12 embrace the pins 8 with sutlicient force to permit the coat-hanging portion 2 to remain in any position to which it has been swung.

The bracket 6 is generally U-shaped in ycross-section (Fig. 5) and has the central opening 16 to accommodate the ange t8 of an internally threaded nut 20. The Vnut .20 is carried between the legs of the U-shaped bracket 6 to prevent rotation thereof and has `the screw 22 passing through it. The screw 22 is rotatably journaledfat vits lower end 26 to the clamping bar 30 at its lowerend so that rotation of the screw 22 in one direction will cause the clamping bar 30 to be ylowered and operatively engage the jaws 50 and 51 and close the jaws to van articlegripping position, whereas rotation of the :screw 22 in the opposite direction will retract the clamping bar 30 and cause the jaws 50 and S1 to open. The `knob 24 is provided at the upper end of the screw 22 to facilitate `rotation of the screw.

The jaws 50 and S1 are shown pivotally .connectedto the coat-hanging portion 2 :by the mounting elements 52 and53 which have their upper ends Sand ySSloosely journaled on the pins 8 and their lower ends .connected to the Voutermost ends of the jaws r Si) and 51 in any conventional or desired manner. The mounting .elements S2 and 53 have t-heir upper ends 54 and 5S loosely coiled around the pins 8 and are separatedfrom the coat-hanging portion 2 and the bracket 6 by the washers 56 and 58. The jaws 50 and 51 are free to swing on the pins 8 from an article-gripping closed position (Fig. 5) to an open position (Fig. 4). The mounting Velements 52 and 53 have cam portions 58 and 59 tapering away from each other and adapted to be engaged lby the clamping bar 30 to close the jaws 50 and 51, as .will be more fully described below. It will be understood, of course,

that one of the jaws 50 or 51 may be rigidly mounted on the pins 8 and that the other jaw may be mounted t0 swing relative thereto.

The clamping bar 30 is mounted on the screw 22 to be moved thereby relative'to the jaws'50 and 51. The clamping bar 30 is in the shape of a double-forkedbar having the fingers 32 and 33 at each end thereof. The mounting elements 52 and 53 pass between the fingers 32 and 33 so that when the clamping bar 30 is lowered, the fingers 32 and 33 will engage the outer surfaces of the tapered portions 58 and 59 of the mounting elements 52 and 53 and thrust the jaws together to a closed articlegripping position. The apexes 57 of the tapered portions 58 and S9 of mounting elements 52 and 53 are spaced above the jaws 50 and 51 by such a distance that normally the jaws 50 and S1 will be closed tightly when the clamping bar 30 has reached a position above the apeXes 57, as seen in Fig. 5.

A second pair of fingers 40 and 41 are mounted on each end of the clamping bar 30 and are inwardly spaced from the fingers 32 and 33. The mounting elements 52 and 53 pass outside the fingers 40 and 41 so that when the clamping bar 30 is raised, the fingers 40 and 41 will abut the inner surfaces of the tapered portions 58 and 59 and thrust the elements 52 and 53 outwardly to thereby open jaws 50 and 51. Thus it will be noted that the fingers 32-40 and 33-41 at each end of the clamping bar 30 form channels wherein the elements 52 and 53 are accommodated and that when the clamping bar 30 is moved toward the jaws 50 and 51, the jaws will be closed, but when the clamping bar 30 is retracted from the jaws 50 and 51, the jaws will be opened.

The fingers 40 and 41 may be made of spring material to bear against the jaws 50 and 51 and bias them outwardly away from each other while permitting the jaws 50 and 51 to be manually closed against the action of the ngers 40 and 41. As shown in the drawings, the iingers 40 and 41 are formed from a single piece of resilient wire 42 wound around the pin 43 in each end of the clamping bar 30. The resiliency of fingers 40 and 41 permits the jaws 50 and 51 to be closed manually to thereby facilitate the hanging of a garment and to permit the screw 22 to be turned easily and quickly.

In operation, the jaws G and 51 are normally open under the inuence of the spring fingers 40 and 41 (Fig. 4). When it is desired to hang a garment, the garment is placed between the jaws S0 and 51 and the coat-hanging portion is swung away, as shown in Fig. 4, to facilitate grasping of the knob 24. Thereafter, the screw 22 is turned to lower the clamp bar 30 to permit the fingers 32 and 33 to abut the tapered portions 5S and 59 of the mounting elements 52 and 53 and by a camming action to move the jaws toward each other and lock the jaws in their closed article-gripping position. The pads 69 will prevent the garment from being damaged and will permit the jaws to grip the garment tightly. To facilitate hanging of a garment, the resiliency of the ngers 40 and 41 will permit the jaws 50 and 51 to be clamped together manually. Thus, after the garment has been placed between the jaws 50 and 51, the jaws are manually clamped on the garment. This permits the hanger to be held by one hand at the jaws, to thereby leave the other hand free to rotate the knob 24. The resiliency of the fingers 40 and 41 will permit the manual clamping of the jaws 50 and 51 together.

Where it is desired to release the garment, the clamping bar 30 is raised by turning the screw 22 in the opposite direction and the jaws are opened by the actionV of the fingers 40 and 41 on the inner surfaces of the tapered portions 58 and 59 of the mounting elements 52 and 53.

As seen in Fig. 7, the jaws 50 and 51 can grip a plurality of trousers 80 therebetween by the cuffs since the clamp bar 30 can be stopped in any position to clamp the jaws 50 and 51 as tightly as desired.

In Fig. 6, the jaws are shown holding a pair of trousers by the knees thereof. The trousers arc draped over the jaws 5t) and 51 underneath the clamp bar 30 which is spaced above the jaws 50 and 51 and the trousers lie between the mounting elements 52 and 53 which are spaced at the outermost ends of the jaws 5t) and 51 a distance sutiicient to accommodate the knees of the trousers therebetween and so that the metal elements 52 and 53 need not touch the garment.

It will be seen that the present invention provides a new and improved garment hanger which is easily constructed and operated. The hanger has an improved garment holding means which adjustably grips the garments so that it can be used with one or more garments of any thickness. Thus, the garment holder may bc used to tightly grip a thin article such as a pair of summerweight culiess slacks or it may be used to grip several heavy pairs of trousers by their cutis. The opening and closing action of the hanger is smooth and fully controlled so that there is no snapping or springing of the mechanism to endanger the users fingers. The hanger is also adapted for construction with wide gripping jaws so that it may accommodate wide articles, such as womens skirts, and so that it has a uniform grip completely across such articles. The wide jaws and their uniform gripping action also allow the hanger to accommodate trousers at their knees and prevent any of the metallic jaw supporting members from contacting the garments.

As'various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the parts herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention and without sacrificing any of its advantages, it is to be understood that all matter herein is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limitingr sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

l. An article hanger comprising a pair of jaws movable relative to each other from an open position to a closed article-gripping position, each of said jaws being mounted on mounting elements journalled on said hanger, a clamping bar mounted on said hanger, means on said hanger for moving said clamping bar in one direction relative to said jaws for operative engagement with said mounting elements to move said jaws from said open position to said closed position, and spring lingers on said clamping member extending between said mounting elements to engage said mounting elements when said clamping bar is moved in the opposite direction to move said jaws from said closed position to said open position.

2. An article hanger comprising a pair of jaws movable relative to each other from an open position to a closed position, means on said hanger for moving said jaws from said open position to said closed position, a clamping bar mounted on said hanger, said clamping bar having a pair of fingers extending therefrom, means for moving said clamping bar relative to said jaws to place said fingers in operative engagement with said jaws to move said jaws from said closed position to said open position, said fingers being resilient to permit the jaws to be manually moved from said open position to said closed position.

3. An article hanger comprising a pair of jaws, each of said jaws being mounted on mounting elements journaled on said hanger, a clamping bar mounted on said hanger, a threaded member mounted on said hanger in threaded engagement therewith and having one end journaled on said clamping bar, whereby rotation of said threaded member in one direction will move said clamping bar toward said jaws and rotation of the threaded member in the opposite direction will move said clamping bar away from said jaws, a pair of jaw-clamping fingers on said clamping bar adapted to engage said mounting elements and move said jaws from the open to the closed position when said clamping bar is moved toward said jaws, and a pair of spring fingers on said clamping bar extending between said mounting elements to engage said mounting elements when said clamping bar is moved away from said jaws to move said jaws from the closed position to said open position.

4. An article hanger comprising a pair of jaws movable relative to each other from an open to a closed articlegripping position, a clamping bar mounted on said hanger, means on said hanger for moving said clamping bar relative to said jaws for operatively engaging said jaws to move said jaws from said open position to said closed position, a pair of fingers on said clamping bar for operatively engaging said jaws to move said jaws from the closed position to the open position, and said fingers being resilient whereby the jaws can be manually moved. from said open to said closed position. v

i References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS "872,587 Spruce Dec. 3, 1907 1,047,295 Riedl Dec. 17, 1912 2,675,148 Podell Apr. 13, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 71,471 Austria Apr. 10, 1916 

